Lee Teng-hui

Lee Teng-hui (15 January 1923-) was President of the Republic of China from 13 January 1988 to 20 May 2000, succeeding Chiang Ching-kuo and preceding Chen Shui-bian. He was a member of the Kuomintang.

Biography
Lee Teng-hui was born in Sanshi, Japanese Taiwan in 1923, and he studied at Kyoto University during World War II. He finished his degree at the National Taiwan University in 1948 and obtained a doctorate in agricultural economics from Cornell University in the United States. A member of the Kuomintang, he became a university teacher before being appointed Minister of State in 1972. He became Mayor of Taipei in 1978, and governor of Taiwan Province in 1981. In 1984, Chiang Ching-kuo appointed him Vice-President and his designated successor. Against stiff opposition from a number of hardline members within the Kuomintang, he was thus the first ethnic Taiwanese to be elected to the presidency. He continued his predecessor's reforms of political liberalization. On the all-important question of relations with mainland China, he steered a difficult course between assisting the country in its transition to become an internationally recognized, self-confident state, against the fierce hostility of China, while at the same time authorizing a dialogue with Deng Xiaoping's communist government about possible reunification, and increasing trade between the two countries. He was confirmed in office by Parliament in 1990, and in direct general elections in 1996. After leaving office in 2000, he was expelled by the KMT for his part in founding the Taiwan Solidarity Union, a pro-independence organization.